Mildred Fernandez's attorney trashes plea offer

July 12, 2010|By David Damron, Orlando Sentinel

The attorney for suspended Orange County Commissioner Mildred Fernandez rejected a plea bargain from prosecutors Monday and said he would complain to the judge handling the case about the offer being made public.

"They're handling it [as] trial by ambush," said Fernandez's attorney Anthony Suarez, who received the plea deal in his office mail Monday but first learned of its possible existence from the media Friday.

Suarez said the offer was "not realistic." It would still tag his client with felony charges, something she would not agree to and would prevent her from ever taking office again, he said.

Fernandez was arrested April 27 after an agent posing as a developer offered her $6,000 in cash campaign donations. Previously, the same agent had offered Fernandez a $1,000 contribution, which prosecutors say she never reported receiving in her campaign account. The sting happened because two other businessman made similar complaints in previous years, prosecutors say.

Fernandez said she is being singled out for attacking politically powerful interests during the county mayor's race. She dropped out of the Aug. 24 primary contest last month, citing her legal woes. Suarez said there are holes in the prosecution's case, namely that Fernandez favored the agent's project before she ever sought a donation and that she directed him on how to make legal contributions.

But Suarez said he was upset that the plea-deal letter was ever made public.

"I'm not negotiating with this guy," Suarez said, referring to Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar.

The executive director of Lamar's office, Randy Means, said the deal was never leaked but instead was part of a conversation that was picked up by a media outlet outside a routine hearing Friday. Neither Means nor Suarez would release the letter or discuss details of the proposed agreement.

"If they don't want to entertain the offer, we'll prepare to go to trial on all the charges," Means said.